Jacopo Pagin

Making art is an exercise of freedom that allows me to be myself beyond myself. There is no other purpose. I hope to be able to lead viewers to get lost in unexpected places, disinterestedly outside any materialistic or deterministic logic.

Jacopo Pagin (b. 1988, Italy) pays homage to historical artistic techniques while presenting a contemporary perspective on everyday life and its mysteries. His practice includes painting, drawing, and mixed media installations. His work explores themes of time, nostalgia, and collective memory, focusing on the relationship between history and the present. He often uses mirrored imagery, reflections, and repetition to explore dualities—such as past versus present, control versus chaos, and memory versus perception. His work blurs the lines between the organic and the artificial, the visible and the invisible, inviting viewers to question the narratives of progress that have shaped contemporary society. Through layered historical references, transparency, and surreal elements, Pagin’s practice critiques the illusion of a linear, controllable future and encourages deeper reflection on collective memories. His work invites viewers to reconsider the promises of modernity and engage with the complexities beneath the surface.

Pagin has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Make Room in Los Angeles, CA, USA and the Pavillon Southway in Marseille, France. Recent selected solo exhibitions include: The Ruins of Light (2026), Centre européen d'actions artistiques contemporaines (CEAAC), Strasbourg, France; Office Illusions (2024), Make Room, Los Angeles, CA; Hidden Place (2024), Public Gallery, London, UK; Strategies Against Time (2022), Pond Society, Singapore; Roaring Shelters (2022), and Fata Morgana (2022), Make Room , Los Angeles, CA.

Recent selected group exhibitions include: Fools for Truth (2025), Pangée, Montreal, Canada; Prophetic Dreams (2024), Kutlesa, Goldau, Switzerland; The Descendants (2023), K11 Foundation, Hong Kong, Evening Shadow (2023), Make Room, Los Angeles, Your mind is a mirror (2023), Pangée, Montreal, Canada; Uncanny Depths (2022) Centre d'art de la Cité Radieuse (MAMO), Marseille, France; Machines of Desire (2022) at Simon Lee Gallery, London, UK;The Views (2022), Moskowitz Bayse in Los Angeles, CA; I Dwell in Possibility, SPURS Gallery, Beijing, China; Manta Rei (2022), Materia Gallery, Rome, Italy;Anima Mundi, Abbaye de Saint-Victor, Manifesta XIII, Marseille, France; and Art Brussels 2022 with Make Room, among others. In 2024–2025, Pagin was an artist in residence with the Fondation d'entreprise Hermès at the Cristallerie Saint-Louis in Saint-Louis-lès-Bitche, France. Pagin’s work is a part of the public collection of the Zhi Art Museum in Chengdu, and Pond Society in Shanghai, China. His work has been written about in such publications as Artnet, Office Magazine, and Art Viewer, among others.